1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the general field of medical devices and/or methods for cooling an injured area of the body to, e.g., alleviate pain and inflammation, and promote healing. In particular, it relates to a flexible cover for containing ice or a cold pack to form an ice bag that will not slip off the injured area, has improved comfort and convenience, the cover having an adhesive layer on the cover as the attachment means. Thus, it relates to an ice bag cover that has an adhesive means for releasably attaching it to, e.g., a fabric used in the care of a patient, such as a hospital blanket or a hospital gown, to keep the ice bag in close contact with the injured area even when the injured area forms a slope or an inclined or vertical surface, or when the patient changes his or her lying position. It also relates to a method of using such non-slip self-adhering cover for cold treatment. It also relates to an article of manufacture that provides such cover, and to the provision with the cover of instructions for use that help unskilled or uninformed users to provide an effective thermal therapeutic treatment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The desirability of using ice bags for thermal therapy is well accepted. It has long been an accepted medical practice to apply a cooling element to the surface of a body in the vicinity of an injury, e.g., a bone fracture area, a post-surgery area, a bruise or a sprain, to, e.g., reduce swelling, inflammation, and pain. A common ice bag that is commercially available is the reusable type comprising a water-impermeable, commonly a rubber-lined, flexible bag having a tubular rigid neck and a removable cap. To use, the bag is filled with ice cubes or ice chips and closed with the cap, then the bag is applied to the injured area of the body and held in place by hand.
Another type of hand-held cold pack that is commercially available is a refrigeratable gel cold pack which comprises a refrigerant or coolant gel material contained in a plastic housing which can be either flexible or relatively inflexible. The gel packs are stored in a conventional freezer for chilling or cooling and are then ready for use. Also commercially available is an endothermic chemical pack that comprises two or more pouches for separately storing chemical reactants that can be mixed to produce a cooling mixture.
A common home-use ice bag can be made using a commercially available reclosable plastic sandwich and/or freezer bag with a zipper seal, such as a Ziploc™ plastic bag filled with ice (Ziploc is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich.). By “reclosable” it is meant that the bag can be opened and closed numerous times.
One of the disadvantages of these ice bags is that they need to be inconveniently held by hand to maintain contact with the injured area For a patient who stays still, e.g., in bed, these types of ice bag can be placed on top of the injury without the need for being held in place by hand. However, some injuries occur in the side of the body, that is, the injured area forms a slope or an inclined or vertical surface, or the patient needs to change his or her posture, e.g., from lying on the back to lying on the side, which can cause the ice bag to slide out of place if it is not retained in place by hand.
To overcome this inconvenience, several types of ice bag devices comprising a holder for these ice bags have been created. These ice bag devices can be strapped around a body part, with, e.g., loop and hook mating Velcro™-type fastening straps, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,080,095 issued Jan. 14, 1992 to Tungate; U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,962 issued Dec. 16, 1997 to Brink et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,080 issued Jun. 1, 1993 to Thomas et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,951 issued Nov. 16, 1999 to Weiss et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,553 B1 issued Mar. 26, 2002 to Bowen discloses an ice pack that has attached tie strings to fasten the ice pack to a body part. Since these ice bag devices need to be wrapped and tied around a body part, they are constrictive and can interfere with the blood flow, or otherwise uncomfortable to the wearer, especially to a patient with a serious injury such as post-surgery wound. It can be inconvenient to apply these ice bags to the body and to remove them from the body. The wrapping can also cause pain or discomfort for situations such as bone fracture or post surgery. Furthermore, these ice bag devices are usually of complicated design, large and bulky in size and/or expensive to produce.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,437 issued Mar. 30, 1999 to Maxim discloses a cold pack containing sealed water or a chemical cooling mixture that does not have fastening straps, but instead has an extended perimeter with adhesive means to attach the chemical cold pack to a skin surface. However when this self-adhesive chemical cold pack is applied to a skin surface, the removal of the device from the skin surface after use can be uncomfortable, especially when the skin area is close to a surgery.
To overcome the constriction effect of the strapping, there are efforts to develop garments or other devices that can provide the cold therapy without the need to be tightly strapped and/or wrapped. U.S. Pat. No. 2,403,676 issued Jul. 9, 1946 to Modlinski discloses a jacket with a plurality of attached pockets to hold ice packs or ice bags. U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,501 issued Jan. 2, 1990 to Lipton discloses a therapeutic pad, with cooling elements, that can be hung around the neck or the head to treat the muscles of the neck, the chest, the back, and/or the jaw. U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,655 issued Dec. 1, 1992 to McCoy discloses a cold therapy panty provided with a receptacle located adjacent to the crotch area to receive a cold pack for applying cold therapy to the crotch of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,354 issued Jul. 5, 1977 to De Rosa discloses an ice cooling vest-like garment comprising water-filled pockets that are frozen and subsequently attached via Velcro fasteners to the inside of the garment so as to provide body cooling under heat stress conditions. Although these cold pack devices provide an improvement over the prior art, they are of complicated design, large and bulky in size and/or expensive to produce.
Thus, there is a need for an improved, inexpensive and readily available ice bag device that remains in close contact with an injured area of a patient, and eliminates the necessity for holding it by hand or strapping and/or tying it around a body part, even when the injured area forms a slope or an inclined or vertical surface, or when the patient needs to change his or her posture, e.g., from lying on the back to lying on the side, or in a reclining position. There is also a need to keep the ice bag applied to a patient in transit, i.e., being transported from one location to another, when a simple movement of the patient can dislodge an unattached ice bag to the rolling bed or a stretcher, or to the floor. Such ice bag devices can minimize the time the care givers need to spend with the patients. Preferably such ice bag device is easily manufactured and used.